The present invention relates generally to electrical heating apparatus and, in particular, cookware used therewith.
Microwave ovens are typically provided with a small, cooking chamber so as to reduce oven size and lower cooking times by concentrating microwaves on foods placed therein. While millions have embraced the benefits of small microwave ovens, their principal drawback of being unable to cook large portions of food at one time has no doubt exasperated an equal number.
To increase the quantities of food that a microwave oven can cook in a given period of time, some people have proposed multi-tiered racks for stacking foods within the ovens"" cooking chambers. Unfortunately, these racks have been complex in their construction and cumbersome to use. They have not seen great commercial success.
In light of the problems associated with the known racks for increasing the cooking capacity of microwave ovens, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a food support for use in a microwave oven that is: uncomplicated in design, light in weight, inexpensive to manufacture and fully effective in use.
It is another object of the invention to provide a food support of the type described having a knockdown construction. Such a support can, thus, be easily disassembled by a user for washing or storing.
Briefly, the food support in accordance with this invention achieves the intended objects by featuring a plate having a plurality of cups integrally fastened to the bottom thereof. Each of the cups has a socket and a peripheral recess around the socket. A pin extends downwardly from the plate into each socket. The base of each of a plurality of legs is selectively inserted into each of the sockets. Each base has a bore in its top for snugly receiving one of the pins and a peripheral ridge for mated engagement with a peripheral recess. Each leg also has an arcuate stem that projects downwardly from the base so as to support the plate above the floor of a microwave oven and that bows outwardly for easy access to food items positioned beneath the plate
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.